National Portrait Gallery iPhone workshop~ Autostitch ~ BracketMode~ Snapseed

Last weekend, at the National Portrait Gallery, I had a great group of eager to learn iPhone Photographers in my workshop. We worked through setting up and using a few shooting apps and processing apps before we went into the gallery and began making images. As I was working with students helping them to make shots and use apps, the window at the end of the Modern wing caught my eye. I loved the whimsical stools arranged in front of it on the square tile floor, as well as the light in the window that was filtered by translucent blinds. I wanted to capture the whole scene and in order to do that I had to make 38 shots using the BracketMode app which captures two shots rapidly, one capturing the highlights in the scene and one capturing the dark areas in the scene. I then blended the shots together in Autostitch. While I was showing a student the process I began to process the shot in Snapseed and he and I both liked the way the image was developing. The new RetroLuxe filter in Snapseed is great for creating a moody feeling in the image.

 

This scene made me laugh! It was so real you just had to look twice. The artist who created this was so creative.  I used ClassicPan to shoot the vertical image eliminating distracting elements on the left side of the scene. Then I processed the image in Snapseed adding a RetroLuxe filter effect, border and toning.

This is also a 38 shot panorama made with the same process as the opening image, using BracketMode for the capture and Autostitch for the stitch. I just loved this scene with the red sofas, tile floor, green carpet and window. When the stitch was done it was a little short on the left side so I used Anti-Crop to add to the image on the left. It was not a perfect add so I used a little Glaze, after processing the image in Snapseed to obscure the issue.When making stitched images it is always a good idea to begin and end the shooting series well beyond the area of the scene you want and overlap images by twenty percent to get a good stitch.

In this image you can see where Anti-Crop added image area on the left side behind the red sofa, but only in a fair way. If I had not told you would you have noticed? I will be conducting more iPhone workshops with Capital Photography Center in  Baltimore, Washington, DC and Horizon Photography Workshops in Chesapeake City, Md. I hope you can join me for some iPhone fun! Learn about creative apps and make some great images!

Lost Phone...and some of my final shots from it...

ClassicPan~capture:Processing~ ImageBlender, PicGrunger

Judging by my past post a month ago, seems I am only getting to update my iPhone blog monthly. These are a few images I have made over the last couple weeks, BEFORE I LOST MY iPhone...yes that's right, I lost it last Thursday, and now have the iP5 on order, but I can tell you being without it is interesting. I feel as if I have gone back in time! So now I am waiting patiently for my new one to arrive. Until then no iPhone pics from me. I am still teaching using the iPad which is just fine for that and for processing. These images were all rescued from the cloud. Check out my iPhone classes and workshops with Horizon Photography Workshops or Capital Photography Center.

Camera+ ~ Capture: Processing~ Snapseed for crop...AutoPainter3..ImageBlender

 

And here are a few from my New Mexico Workshop in September. 

Markree Castle, Ireland ~ App ~ Vintage Scene

Capture: Camera+  Processed: Vintage Scene

During my Ireland tour with Peter Cox, John Barclay and Dan Sniffin, I was making iPhone images as well as "Big Girl" camera images. It was really quite fun helping other professional photographers on tour with their iPhones. They were downloading new apps and as we drove from town to town I was demonstrating how to use the apps. After the tour was over I spent ten more days road tripping through Ireland. One of the high lights of my trip was my stay in the Markree Castle. I had intended to do some photography here with the Nikon camera but the rain never stopped for the days I was here. The morning I was leaving I did walk around the grounds in my rain slicker and made a few images with my iPhone. The age of the castle and the rain led me to choose an app that creates a look of old photos, with many options for adjustments, from color to texture and borders. Its not a new app but it is one of my favorite apps.

Capture: 6x7 Processed: Vintage Scene

I loved the architectural details of the windows with climbing roses.

Capture: ClassicPan Processed: Vintage Scene

Capture: BracketMode Processed: ProHDR: Vintage Scene

This is a shot of the bathroom window in my room that overlooked the gardens...it was a great place!
I am offering the same Ireland tour June 2 - June 11, 2013 with Peter Cox of Ireland. To date there are six photographers registered with space for 8 more, so if you are interested in the South-west Ireland tour with myself and Peter Cox: click here for more info and registration.
This fall in Baltimore, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University Odyssey program I am happy to be offering a six week iPhone class. For more information and registration click here.

Ireland~ Textures~ WIndows and Doors~ Snapseed~ ImageBlender~PicGrunger

While continuing to work my way through some iPhone images I made in Ireland........I noticed a common thread of window and doorway images. The little town of Dingle, our first stop, had interesting colorful windows and doorways to capture. In almost every window in Ireland there is some type of lace curtain. I was curious about the origins of this style of window decor and could not find in a quick search, anything on the internet relating to the historical use of lace at windows in Ireland. I did find a little history on Irish lace making on this site. History of Irish Lace. Maybe it has become just a decorating tradition but I also think it serves a purpose other than its beauty. Many windows in the houses I saw had no "screens" maybe the lace acts as screen, although I doubt it would keep the "Midges" out...
I snapped a shot of some lace that adorned a table in Dingle's Benner Hotel where we stayed. Walking the town for about an hour in the afternoon I captured a few shots of doors and windows that interested me for their colors or design. I used the single image of the lace from the hotel as a texture and overlaid it on the straight shots in ImageBlender. Then I used a grunge filter in PicGrunger or SnapSeed to finish off the look I had in my  mind.

 I also loved this window shot straight out of the app ClassicPan, no lace needed!

A few more recent shots....Chesapeake City

 

This shot was made while walking the streets of Chesapeake City, Md. during my recent iPhone photography workshop. I was working with the app Classic Pan making a shot of some chairs that were stretched out across the sidewalk, when I noticed this waitress looking out the tall window, I quickly recomposed and made this shot, I made one more shot after this one, but she moved and no longer had that daydreaming look.. "the decisive moment." The image was processed in Snapseed.

 

A shop keeper had a display of a wooden screen so I made a quick grab and processed it with Photo Wizard, Textures and PicGrunger.

This image is of a sailboat model that I shot through a shopkeepers window. I used AutoPainter VanGough, for the sky and then Blended it back with the original in Image Blender, masked out the VanGough effect on the sail and finished the image off in PicGrunger.

My next all day workshop in Chesapeake City, Md with Horizon Photography Workshops will be December 8. Here's a link for registration: Click Here.
Hope to see you there!